I have looked at the archives, and while I probably missed it, I can't find anything on the specific issue I have at hand, namely:

I have to deal with millions of individual files (images). I have been able to reduce the file sizes to something between 200 and 500 bytes. The minimum size that a file can have on my Dell Desktop using Windows 7 is 4k. I don't know if that's a Windows requirement, or from whence that 4k minimum derives.

When paying for storage of millions of images, there is a GREAT deal of difference in cost between storing 4k per file and the 200-to-500 bytes per file of even the 8-bit-deep black-and-white files I currently have. By the same token, there is no value in spending energy on "getting to binary" if I am 'locked' to storage blocks of 4k.

I have looked at the "bwpack" function, but I'm not sure that does anything for me outside the MatLab environment.

Here are my questions:

Is there a method within MatLab to STORE images/matricies/files as true binary?Can that storage mechanisim overcome 4k minimum storage size that my OS seems to impose?